Crafting For Those Dedicated to Experimentation

Wilton Dye

My first dyeing class of the year went off without a hitch, well the actual class did not have any hitches. Unfortunately the individual that is supposed to be in charge of the classes has chosen to set new parameters that she let me know about by sending me a very rude e-mail. The situation is a little too complicated for me to write a lot about, but it boils down to:

I have been doing these programs for 11 months alone and with no real supervision so I Have done the best I am able, and they have flourished.

Four months ago, in the beginning of December, I gave this supervisor a plan covering a years worth of crafting classes that specified what the materials fees would be going toward and that these two classes would be 3.5 hours long.

Two weeks before the class was going to happen this supervisor e-mailed me all sorts of accusations, what was I going to do while the speaker was there (“We’re paying you to be there…”), they need to approve speakers before they come in (never mind I let them know that I was approaching a speaker and they gave no indication further action was required on my part), etc. I managed to take this to our respective supervisors and we temporarily have things hammered out. Unfortunately my attempts to open up channels of communication, sending out a confirming e-mail that I had the details of the meeting correct, was met with radio silence for a week. Then upon prompting I received “it looks fine” as a response. Just like that, no capitalization and no punctuation. These details might seem petty, but we are supposed to be grown-up professionals.

Due to these troubles, I know that I will see my commitment through the end of June when my spinning classes come to a close. However, I am not certain if I will pursue this through the summer and rest of the year. I love doing the classes, but if there is no communication I will not wait around for the next bullying e-mail from this individual. By discontinuing the craft classes I will be taking myself out of their sphere of influence. I also have plenty of work that I can be doing, computer tutoring, computer classes, developing my collections, etc.

Right now I am going to wait and see if this supervisor sets up a meeting to go over the programming planned for May and the summer. If this meeting does not occur and no further efforts toward communication are made, then I will see my current commitment through and ask for written guidelines so that I can consider picking these classes back up in December.

*I seriously considered deleting this post, it can sound like whining. However, I firmly believe that it needs to be put into a public forum that just because you love doing something you do not have to put up with bullies to be able to do what you love. If I do decide to discontinue teaching these classes at the public library I intend to find another forum to express my love of these crafts. Whether it is lessons on this website, setting up private lessons, creating a studio, requesting opportunities through the local arts council, seeing if my guild will sponsor events, etc. I want to pursue this, I need to pursue this, and I will find a way. Just because someone tries to beat me down only means that I will arise stronger and more determined than ever. I will not be bullied, and I will not be stopped.*

I cannot, for the life of me, believe that summer is OVER! It seems like summer just began and here I am looking at my last Wooly Wednesday Class Tomorrow! We are starting up “Fall Crafting” next Monday during the afternoon but this still seems like the end of an era.

Wooly Wednesday’s could not have gone better if I had tried. I do have some plans for how to modify these classes for the spring and summer in 2018 so that they are more comprehensive, don’t rush my students as much, and cover more students and class time for the same amount of supplies (my boss will like that one).

LOOK AT ALL OF THE COOL STUFF MY LADIES CREATED THIS SUMMER!!!!!

This summer of Crafting ROCKED, so did my Wooly Wednesday Ladies. I hope to see you this fall, I miss you already!

My First Dyeing class was a runaway success. The techniques and materials were simple enough that the students had no problems following along. Everyone’s wool turned out bright and beautiful, the results were phenomenal. I hope that every class is as enthusiastic, cheerful, and helpful. The questions being asked proved that the patrons were there to learn. I am so excited for the rest of the Classes. Dyeing Wool Handout contains the methods that I taught to dye fibers easily using materials found in a kitchen. There are a million other ways to dye fiber, so do not take this as gospel.

For the first class I am teaching in June, 2 hours long, I hope to mention how eco-friendly wool is (sheep are not harmed in shearing); and cover some aspects of color theory while emphasizing that this is only the beginning of our wool journey not the end by any stretch of the imagination. Since I am also planning on the students dyeing some wool and having a blast this is a lot to cover in just 2 hours. A lot of preparation has gone into this class, so wish me luck!

I am having so much fun with dying techniques! These are my first 4 attempts at dyeing with depth, using more than one color before putting in my main color so that the main color stands out more than it would have. The first two braids, that I think of as Crows and Ravens are red & blue with black as the main color. The reds and blues struck the fiber more than I thought they would leaving little room for the black to attach, I think I will have to use less of the first two and perhaps a professional black if I want to try this again. The yellow is a light yellow overdyed with a stronger golden yellow. I like the effect, it gives the yellows some depth without muddying things up too much. The reds were an interesting experiment, between my cake frosting dyes, and my regular dyes I had about 3-4 shades of red/pink. So I used all of them, the end result was supposed to be a strong red with pink undertones/depth. Things didn’t seem to be working too well until I remembered a piece of advice where they said to use a contrasting color to emphasize the main color, so with a hope and a prayer I put in a drop of blue. Much to my shock the red started to pop and the overall effect is that the colors deepened quite a bit.

I am very happy with these results and look forward to my next dyeing day!

I have to confess, this wool is so much softer than it looks. All of these pieces of wool are dyed using either Liquid or gel food dyes as well as a combination of Alum and Cream of Tartar as a mordant. I do enjoy how the colors have turned out, they are not as brilliant as I would have liked. I did find out with the last batch of yellow I did, if I pre-mordant the fiber and cook up the dye bath in the mordant and use about half a container of the color then the colors come out very rich, the bottom two golden yellows. The yellow right above was first dyed in Hibiscus Tea (a variety that was quite sharp though I usually prefer hibiscus tea). This particular blend of tea is a very sharp red and initially turned the fiber a beautiful Burgundy…alas all of that color just ran right out of the fiber when it was taken from the bath. The result was a very faintly beige color, you know that shade of eggshell where you are staring at it and saying “it isn’t quite white but it isn’t really anything else either.” So I overdyed by plopping this fiber into a pot that I thought was exhausted (it wasn’t) and turned out to be very pretty and rinsed clear.

I am really happy with my experimentations. If I get particularly brave this afternoon I might try to fill out cards with what information I have for them and start a dye dairy. At the absolute minimum I intend to finish dyeing my fibers using the Wilton Cake Dye kit I obtained and Alum Mordant so that I have a wide Pallette of colors to play with. If sometime this summer a yen takes my fancy I might look into obtaining some Jacquard dyes to get more colors. I do hope to spend some time this summer and fall experimenting with plant materials and the dyes that they can create, how exciting!